The Knight’s Tale, Parts 1–2

From the beginning through Theseus’s decision to hold the tournament
Fragment 1, lines 859–1880

Summary: The Knight’s Tale Part One

Long ago in Ancient Greece, a great conqueror and duke
named Theseus ruled the city of Athens. One day, four women kneel
in front of Theseus’s horse and weep, halting his passage into the
city. The eldest woman informs him that they are grieving the loss
of their husbands, who were killed at the siege of the
city of Thebes. Creon, the lord of Thebes, has dishonored them by
refusing to bury or cremate their bodies. Enraged at the ladies’
plight, Theseus marches on Thebes, which he easily conquers. After
returning the bones of their husbands to the four women for the
funeral rites, Theseus discovers two wounded enemy soldiers lying
on the battlefield, nearing death. Rather than kill them, he mercifully
heals the Theban soldiers’ injuries, but condemns them to a life
of imprisonment in an Athenian tower.

The prisoners, named Palamon and Arcite, are cousins and sworn
brothers. Both live in the prison tower for several years. One spring
morning, Palamon awakes early, looks out the window, and sees fair-haired
Emelye, Theseus’s sister-in-law. She is making flower garlands,
“To doon honour to May” (1047). He falls
in love and moans with heartache. His cry awakens Arcite, who comes
to investigate the matter. As Arcite peers out the window, he too
falls in love with the beautiful flower-clad maiden. They argue
over her, but eventually realize the futility of such a struggle
when neither can ever leave the prison.

One day, a duke named Perotheus, friend both to Theseus
and Arcite, petitions for Arcite’s freedom. Theseus agrees, on the
condition that Arcite be banished permanently from Athens on pain
of death. Arcite returns to Thebes, miserable and jealous of Palamon, who
can still see Emelye every day from the tower. But Palamon, too, grows
more sorrowful than ever; he believes that Arcite will lay siege to Athens
and take Emelye by force. The knight poses the question to the listeners,
rhetorically: who is worse off, Arcite or Palamon?

Summary: The Knight’s Tale Part Two

Some time later, winged Mercury, messenger to the gods,
appears to Arcite in a dream and urges him to return to Athens.
By this time, Arcite has grown gaunt and frail from lovesickness.
He realizes that he could enter the city disguised and not be recognized.
He does so and takes on a job as a page in Emelye’s chamber under
the pseudonym Philostrate. This puts him close to Emelye but not
close enough. Wandering in the woods one spring day, he fashions
garlands of leaves and laments the conflict in his heart—his desire
to return to Thebes and his need to be near his beloved. As it -happens, Palamon
has escaped from seven years of imprisonment that very day and hears
Arcite’s song and monologue while -sneaking through the woods. They
confront each other, each claiming the right to Emelye. Arcite challenges
his old friend to a duel the next day. They meet in a field and
bludgeon each other ruthlessly.

Theseus, out on a hunt, finds these two warriors brutally
hacking away at each other. Palamon reveals their identities and
love for Emelye. He implores the duke to justly decide their fate,
suggesting that they both deserve to die. Theseus is about to respond
by killing them, but the women of his court—especially his queen
and Emelye—intervene, pleading for Palamon and Arcite’s lives. The
duke consents and decides instead to hold a tournament fifty weeks
from that day. The two men will be pitted against one another, each
with a hundred of the finest men he can gather. The winner will
be awarded Emelye’s hand.

Analysis

The Knight’s Tale is a romance that encapsulates
the themes, motifs, and ideals of courtly love: love is like an
illness that can change the lover’s physical appearance, the lover
risks death to win favor with his lady, and he is inspired to utter
eloquent poetic complaints. The lovers go without sleep because
they are tormented by their love, and for many years they pine away
hopelessly for an unattainable woman. The tale is set in mythological Greece,
but Chaucer’s primary source for it is Boccaccio’s Teseida, an Italian
poem written about thirty years before The Canterbury Tales.
As was typical of medieval and Renaissance romances, ancient Greece
is imagined as quite similar to feudal Europe, with knights and
dukes instead of heroes, and various other medieval features.